Mobile Phones Guidance Required

[Bribie G]

Well I must be one of the longest ever hold-outs as it's 2009 and I do not have a mobile phone. If someone needs to contact me they can phone me at home or email me (I check my emails several times a day) or if it's life and death they can call my work. I'm never far from a public phone.
I have no idea how to snd a txt msg 2u and feel sorry for the poor kids on the train who just stare at the little screen for an hour, occasionally going peck peck peck.

But the time has come. I may be going overseas for a month shortly and have decided to get a phone on a plan and get International Roaming.

Could someone explain what a capped plan means? For example "Nokia np3983847828xyz model free with 24 month $29 cap". I take it that you get the phone upfront and the cost of the handset is factored in over the 24 month period. But what does 'cap' mean? In the above example does that mean you spend $29 a month with a certain number of calls allowed, or is the $29 the least you spend. In the latter case how come it is called a CAP... I would have thought a cap was a cap FFS.

Any suggestions about a good model / carrier / plan for occasional use and usage on the train with Web Browsing capabilities. How long do phones run on a charge? I actually did have a Motorola Brick in the early 90s but binned it when analogue ended and I'd be lucky to get four hours standby and one hour talk on the bloody dinosaur.

Does anyone know anything about charges for International Roaming?

When will my airlock stop bubbling and why have my carb drops gone sticky?


Any advice appreciated.
:icon_cheers:

 

[raven19]

But the time has come. I may be going overseas for a month shortly and have decided to get a phone on a plan and get International Roaming.

Dont get one! They are a nuisance!

Seriously though, the capped deal wont make any difference when you are overseas... as I am pretty sure all o/s calls made (AND received) will cost you on top of your plan. In most instances, even receiving a call o/s will cost YOU.

Where are you heading to o/s?

Different regions have different phones. You may be better off buying a SIM card when you arrive o/s then plug that into your own phone. These can be bought with prepaid $$$ on them, and you can add more $$$ to them via the net or phone.

Generally the smaller the cap, the higher per minute/second the charge rate is, so on a small plan it wont take long to blow your cap so to speak.

I mainly use my phone for emergencies, for occasional texting, and as a phone book! Then use home or work phone to make outgoing calls.

 

[komodo]

Your cap wont cap anything OS.
Even if people call you why you're OS you'll be charged through the nose.
Often its better to just get a prepaid plan overseas - depending on how long your staying - how much your going to use the phone.
Telstra undoubtedly has the best national coverage - but the likes of 3, optus and vodafone often have better coverage than telstras "partners" overseas.
A cap IS a cap for calls locally - except once you go over the limit of your cap the call rates are pretty pricey. Also with caps the flag fall and 30sec charges are often higher - that said often caps represent good value. We cut our bills here at work from $1200 per month to $399 per month with a 3 cap.

 

[Adamt]

A $x cap means "You have to pay at least $x a month on usage, but for that $x you get $y worth of calls", where y is a few times larger than x. It's a roundabout way of saying "our normal prices are ridiculously high, so we're giving you a massive discount".

When getting a cap plan you need to read the fine print as to how much you get to use on what, especially roaming/international roaming.

That being said, I have no real recommendations except that don't bother with an expensive phone if you know you're not going to use the features.

 

[schooey]

A cap plan means that for the nominated cost ie. $29, you get the included amount of texts/calls/data included in that plan for the nominated charge. But once you exceed that amount of inclusions, it's charged at a nominated rate.

Si if you have a $79 cap, that includes 100 texts and $500 worth of calls, thats what you get for the $79 whether you use it or not. If you use more than 100 texts, you pay x cents a text after etc etc

As for the phone, if you only want something basic, I'd grab any kind of Nokia; Just for the reason that if you are going to be travelling around a bit, it's not hard to find a charger cord or a battery in a pinch as they are so prolific.

Also, be wary that many of the cap plans don't include international roaming. If you are travelling to Europe or the UK, you're probably going to find a better deal once you get over there. Last time we went, we took a handset and bought a prepaid SIM there. The rates tend to be a lot cheaper, as the competition is fierce

 

[Pollux]

My wife and I don't even have a home phone anymore, we just use our mobiles.

As for the caps, think of it as getting $150 worth of calls for $29 (I know this is the case with 3), It's basically a way of ensuring some level of consistency in terms of your bills.

I recently upgraded to the larger cap as I was going over my $150 allocation every month. This meant my bill was $29 + whatever value of calls I made over the $150.


My advice would be to see who any family members you call regularly are with and look at going with the same carrier, often you get an allocation of free calls between numbers on the same carrier in addition to your cap allocation....

 

[Bribie G]

Great advice so far guys

Heading for the Philippines on a work assignment - although I won't know if my application has succeded until later this week - and thought a mobile would be a good way of keeping in touch / emergencies etc rather than using the phone within the country itself. We had a cat emergency yesterday and I ended up in the car heading into Caboolture vet hospital with a fitting cat and a small grandson and no way of letting anyone know where any of us were and thought "The time has come buddy, and this should fit in with the Philippines job as well if it comes off".

The cap deal sounds ok for local usage and probably keep in touch via web based email if I'm over there and just keep the phone for emergencies and peace of mind. If I do get a third gen handset so I can do some browsing on the train, do they charge by the Mb or the minute?

 

[Pollux]

As for data, depends on your carrier.

You could take the yuppiPhone route as most caps for those come with an allowance of data.


We have a heaps of philos at work, many of which travel back home once a year, I'll ask them about who they use and roaming charges.

 

[schooey]

If I do get a third gen handset so I can do some browsing on the train, do they charge by the Mb or the minute?

You can get plans for either. Best way is to decide what you are using it for, and go see a dealer like Crazy Johns or Optus or Vodafone.... pick your demon.

If you are going to use it on the train a bit, something like a 16 gig iPhone probably isn't silly.. you could pick it up duty free on your way over.

Music and vids or podcasts loaded on it might be a good thing if you do a bit of train travel

 

[Bribie G]

You can get plans for either. Best way is to decide what you are using it for, and go see a dealer like Crazy Johns or Optus or Vodafone.... pick your demon.

If you are going to use it on the train a bit, something like a 16 gig iPhone probably isn't silly.. you could pick it up duty free on your way over.

Music and vids or podcasts loaded on it might be a good thing if you do a bit of train travel

Aha now you have tickled my Chinese-hop-buying tightwad nerve. :lol:

 

[seemax]

The iPhone is a good choice is you primarily want email/google/large screen action. It acts as an iPod for music/video too. The only bad side is it's big and heavy and battery life can be poor. The Optus cap plans include a decent amount of data. It features wifi so you can use your home based internet when in range (ie data through home instead of iPhone) assusming you have a wireless router. You are spoilt for choice though... just walk into any phone shop and explore the range... mind boggling.

For international, go for a prepaid SIM. If you activate roaming, the call/text costs with be HUGE plus you often get charged per min/per text when people contact you.

 

[DJR]

Caps are more like a minimum spend..

Check the call rates usually the "cap" plans have 2x or 3x higher call rates per 30sec which adds up to quite a bit...

As for overseas get a prepaid sim over there or use someone like GlobalSIM, not that i have used them but they tend to be a bit cheaper than roaming. If you really want people to get in contact work out what your voicemail access number is, call it from overseas and re-record your message with your international number. That way people who are really desperate can call you.

I just use a prepaid phone (ku990) with a cheap plan from Pennytel who are cheap but the service sometimes leaves a little to be desired - found i cut my rate considerably for myself and my wife - we get free calls 24x7 unlimited to each other and also can call any landline in Oz for 8c untimed as long as you set it up with the "Smartdial" feature (you can set up up to 100 numbers that are basically redirects) and tie it to one of their VoIP accounts. I have data on it as well which is nice but usually i use a 3G broadband USB thingy in the laptop.

 

[Bribie G]

I didn't get the overseas trip, however a generous buddy (obviously in a state of angst about me being a mobile Neanderthal) has just chucked me a surplus Nokia E63 :icon_cheers: without a sim card of course,

so I'm going to venture out and get buy a sim card+plan. So it's out of the frying pan into the fire. Buddy is with 3 but he lives in the city and reckons here on Bribie (think Mornington, Terrigal, Mandurah etc) I'd be better off shopping around to see what's the best coverage.

I'd use it for maybe three calls a day, a few texts and about 2 hours a week browsing on the train - AHB lo fi, news.com, weather maps, emailing, a bit of general browsing. Is anyone on a reasonably priced plan for that sort of stuff? I expect there are a lot of members who use their device when commuting on the train etc and that's what I'll be doing.

However the plans out there are confusing, I note that some of them inlude 300 mb data in their $30-ish cap, others such as 3 have really good caps but then charge $2 a mb for data which is appalling. Any guidance and anectdotes appreciated before I submit myself to the GenY sharks at three stores, vodafone stores etc :blink: :icon_cheers: :icon_cheers: